Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [58]
A pause. “Bridge, this is the captain. How can you have a yellow alert in spacedock?”
Thelin shook his head in amazement. “That man is a danger to himself and to those around him,” he muttered, sitting back down in his chair.
The entire bridge crew murmured in agreement. The rest of the Excelsior transmissions were mostly ignored.
Carol stood up from her station, gazing at the viewscreen, her sense of alarm momentarily giving way to curiosity. “So, if there are three cloaked ships out there…are they Romulan, or Klingon?”
“Or someone else?” Thelin suggested. “Seems like before long, everyone will have the technology.”
“Sir,” the tactical officer interjected. “I’ve just cross-referenced the readings with our database. The observed effect is consistent with a cloaked B’rel-class Klingon bird-of-prey.”
Thelin’s antennae bowed inward in consternation. “This doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If they wanted to spy on us, they’d only need one cloaked ship. Why send three?”
Croy shrugged. “Maybe they wanted to intimidate us?”
“I don’t think so,” Thelin replied. “They’re much more cunning than that.”
“Well, the cavalry is about to arrive,” Croy said. “The spacedock doors are opening!”
“Full range on viewer,” Thelin ordered.
In the distance, the huge doors on the topmost dome of the spacedock began to slowly slide apart, revealing the gleaming hull of the Excelsior as it waited patiently to emerge. Around the bridge of the Copernicus, the anxious crew grew restless, knowing that they were at best an even match against one bird-of-prey, let alone three.
The moment the forward hull of Excelsior began to poke through the aperture, one of the areas of distortion on the screen shifted, and began to move swiftly across the field of vision toward the spacedock.
“I’ve seen enough,” the Andorian captain said. “Go to red alert. Ensign Lee, report to Excelsior that the bogey appears to be moving to intercept.”
“Shields are up, weapons systems are charging,” the tactical officer said.
“Excelsior acknowledges,” Lee said. “Going to red alert status.”
“Captain!” Croy shouted. “All three ships are decloaking!”
Sure enough, the three vessels simultaneously emerged from their shrouds. One bird-of-prey sat perched directly in front of the spacedock doors, engaging the Excelsior in a tactical staredown. But the much larger Starfleet ship appeared to blink first; as soon as it cleared the dock, it veered off before turning and settling into a central position amid the three Klingon ships.
The two Klingon ships that had sat unmoving throughout the previous maneuvers now split apart, aggressively taking flanking positions on either side of the Excelsior.
“Captain,” Lee said. “Word from spacedock is that they have now mobilized the Yorktown. They’ll be coming out to join us shortly.”
“Acknowledge that,” Thelin replied with some relief. The three small Klingon fighters would be no match for two massive Starfleet cruisers, and Thelin, while certainly not one to back away from a fight, knew that the tiny science vessel he commanded would be of little use were this standoff to destabilize into any sort of battle. “Helm,” he said, hating the words he was about to say but fully appreciating the facts of the situation, “as soon as the Yorktown is free and clear of the dock, prepare to withdraw.”
“Aye, sir,” the helmsman said.
Inside the dock, the Constitution-class Yorktown could now be seen preparing to maneuver its way through the doors while a Klingon bird-of-prey still guarded the exit like a sentry. But before any part of the ship could emerge, as Thelin’s crew looked on in horror, the Klingon ship’s disruptor cannons unleashed a barrage of firepower directly upon the Starfleet vessel.
Immediately the scene around them dissolved into utter chaos. In response, the Excelsior fired upon the attacking Klingon ship, only to be hit with disruptor fire on both sides from the two flanking vessels.